O Pioneers!

Eli and Daddy after Eli caught his VERY FIRST fish! Awesome!

Hannah looking like a big girl!

Daddy fishing with the kiddos.

Lydia with her friend Julia.

Mommy and Daddy enjoying the morning.

Eli and his friend Sam.

Eli in his "pioneer" hat.

Hello all! Sorry it's taken me a little while to post again. We have been busy, busy! 

Right now in history we are covering the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia. We are discussing a lot about what it was like to live there and work there. And what it was like to travel by ship, farm, make soap, hunt, etc. We are creating a timeline as we travel through the years and learn about the discovery of our nation. Eli is fascinated as always and wears a park ranger-like hat that his uncle Bill bought him at the Arch when they visited. He calls it his pioneer hat. Our theme for the year, after all, is Pioneers and Patriots. And he insists he wants to be a pioneer when we go trick or treating. Silly, silly boy. But that is not a battle I will fight. If the boy wants to be a pioneer then so be it. =) 

Eli is still struggling a little in math. But he is still making progress and much more progress than he was making in the other curriculum. Many more light bulb moments these days, praise the Lord! Lydia on the other hand is flying through her math. She can count to at least 20 and is beginning to recognize her numbers as well. Hannah even counts a little.

Eli might be a little behind in math, but he is a total whiz in spelling! I am floored every time we start a new list! He flies through it and aces the final test at the end of the unit! He has no problem in this area. He continues to grow in the area of reading as well and is definitely performing at grade level there. Lydia loves learning her letters. We have only learned 2 so far. But she knows them well and can now write them. She recognizes them and knows their sounds. Since she is only 4 I am just gradually adding one letter at a time. We are now working on C. Hannah even knows them! She loves to do school with her big sister. She can't write them yet, but she consistently recognizes them and tells me the sounds.

The kids really love their handwriting this year! I am THRILLED with that! They don't complain at all and actually enjoy it! Hooray!

As for some of the other language arts....the kids love poetry and we just finished "Father in Heaven We Thank Thee" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. And Eli is learning some basic grammar this year. We have covered sentence fragments and run ons, punctuation, and a little about sentence structure. He is picking up on it really well. I see him being more literature, art, and music inclined over mathematically inclined just like his mother! =) 

Our memory verses and character studies are always great! They enjoy them and they are hiding God's word in their hearts every single day. And not only that but they are discussing it and learning how it applies to their lives. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to be here with them through that! So far we have memorized a verse in Psalms and a verse in Galations. And we have studied some verses in Thessalonians and 2 Peter. The character trait has been responsibility. We will be working on another character trait in a couple of weeks.

Science has been on different parts of God's creation. We have learned about several sea creatures and flying squirrels and other small rodents. We have learned about the location of different countries and their cultures and climates. We have learned about the seasons a little more. We are breaking down the days of creation. Lydia is learning about science as it applies to history beginning with creation and we are now up to the Tower of Babel.

The kids started their Master's Lyceum classes a few weeks ago and those are going well. They always love to go! They also play soccer on Tuesdays. And they both have Royal Rangers on Wednesday nights at church. They love to earn their little patches and what not. 

So we are busy, like I mentioned. But it's the awesome busyness of children learning and growing. It's the busyness I was called to. Nothing like it! I will upload a few pics. One is a pic of Eli in the aforementioned hat and the others are from a recent camping trip that we made with friends. Enjoy!